Defying risks of a violent crackdown and severe punishment by Chinese authorities, Tibetans in Ngaba (Chinese: Aba) County of Sichuan Province have openly and massively paid obeisance to their exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, on the first day of Losar, the Tibetan New Year, which fell on Feb 19, reported voatibetanenglish.com Feb 20. Tibetans traditionally mark their age by Losar and this date therefore ushered in the momentous occasion of the Dalai Lama reaching 80 years old.

The report said more than 3,000 people visited the Sergon Thubten Chokle Namgyal Ling, which belongs to the Jonang school of Tibetan Buddhism, and offered ceremonial scarves to a life-sized portrait of the Dalai Lama while Lungta prayer flags imprinted on pieces of paper filled the sky above.

China’s forced patriotism and legal education campaigns, being carried out especially at monasteries, require Tibetans to disown and condemn the Dalai Lama, with those who refuse to do so being severely beaten and legally punished. [Source]

At monasteries in Sichuan’s Ngaba (in Chinese, Aba) and Golog (Guoluo)Tibetan Autonomous Prefectures, participants placed life-size photos of the Dalai Lama on thrones in the monasteries’ courtyards, made offerings, and recited prayers for his long life, a local source told RFA’s Tibetan Service.

“Those taking part included both monks from the monasteries and laypersons from the local Tibetan community,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Amid impressive ceremonial a six-year-old Chinese peasant was today enthroned in Lhasa as Dalai Lama – ruler of Tibet’s 3,000,000 people. Riding in a golden palanquin, he was escorted by a mile-long procession from his palace on the outskirts of the city to the Potala Palace, where the ceremony was held.

An hour before dawn, at the time fixed by astrologers, the fourteenth incarnation of the Dalai Lama entered the main assembly hall of the palace to the sound of trumpets and mounted the golden throne. The ceremonies will last for several days. [Source]

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/02/tibetans-openly-celebrate-dalai-lamas-80th/feed/0Beijing Protests Modi’s Visit to Disputed Border Regionhttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/02/beijing-protests-modis-visit-disputed-border-region/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/02/beijing-protests-modis-visit-disputed-border-region/#commentsFri, 20 Feb 2015 23:10:19 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=181472On Friday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid a visit to Arunachal Pradesh, a north-eastern Indian state whose legitimacy has long been contested by China. Modi’s visit came on the 28th anniversary of the state’s establishment, and coincided with the inauguration of a new train line connecting the mountainous state with the capital city of New Delhi. Unsurprisingly, China’s foreign ministry lodged official protest against Modi’s visit to the disputed border region that China considers part of Tibet, and hence rightfully under Beijing’s sovereignty. From Pete Sweeney at Reuters:

“The Chinese government has never recognised the so-called ‘Arunachal Pradesh’,” a statement on the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s website said on Friday.

It said Modi’s visit was “not conducive to the overall development of bilateral relations”.

Modi visited Arunachal Pradesh on Friday to inaugurate the opening of a train line and power station. He did not mention China but pledged billions of dollars of investment to develop infrastructure in the region.

“I assure you that you will witness more development in the state in the next five years than it has seen in the last 28 years,” Modi said, addressing a huge crowd.

The so-called “Arunachal Pradesh” was established largely on the three areas of China’s Tibet — Monyul, Loyul and Lower Tsayul currently under Indian illegal occupation. These three areas, located between the illegal “Mcmahon Line” and the traditional customary boundary between China and India, have always been Chinese territory.

In 1914, the colonialists secretly contrived the illegal “Mcmahon Line” in an attempt to incorporate into India the above-mentioned three areas of Chinese territory. None of the successive Chinese governments have ever recognized this line.

In February 1987, Indian authorities declared the founding of the so-called “Arunachal Pradesh.” [Source]

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/02/beijing-protests-modis-visit-disputed-border-region/feed/0Language Policy and Ethnic Conflict in Chinahttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/02/language-policy-ethnic-conflict-china/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/02/language-policy-ethnic-conflict-china/#commentsFri, 13 Feb 2015 21:48:54 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=181308While China is often accused of stoking ethnic tensions by marginalizing minority languages, the University of Iowa’s Wenfang Tang argues that the problem in Tibetan and Uyghur areas is not too much Mandarin education, but too little. This, he suggests, inflames tensions by leaving people at an economic disadvantage which they blame on ethnic discrimination. From the University of Nottingham’s China Policy Institute Blog:

In addition to the shortage of Mandarin speaking teachers, another reason for minority regions’ Mandarin deficiency is the problem of bureaucratic turf war. For example, in the Education Law, all schools are required to use Mandarin as the language of instruction, while the Ethnic Autonomy Law encourages the use of ethnic languages in education. […]

[…] In summary, China’s overly lenient language policy has resulted in minority students being less likely to go to college and to find good jobs. Their income is lower than the Han majority. Consequently, they become angry and blame the problem as discrimination. To solve this problem, promoting Mandarin education should be the first step. Admittedly, such a solution will face more fury from those who are already critical of China’s ethnic policies. Ultimately, it is a tradeoff between keeping ethnic languagse and cultural identity and improving the economic opportunities and conditions for minorities. [Source]

[…] Even some of the best-educated Uighur and Tibetan migrants struggle to find work. Reza Hasmath of Oxford University found that minority candidates in Beijing, for example, were better educated on average than their Han counterparts, but got worse-paying jobs. A separate study found that CVs of Uighurs and Tibetans, whose ethnicities are clearly identifiable from their names (most Uighurs also look physically very different from Han Chinese), generated far fewer calls for interviews.

[…] One 25-year-old university graduate from the Xinjiang Class [a government affirmative action scheme which sends students to study outside Xinjiang] describes her months of difficulty in getting a job in Beijing, before landing one at a foreign-owned company. A large Chinese IT firm rescinded a job offer without explanation on the Friday before she was to start work. Another job interviewer then told her she should go back to Xinjiang. [The Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology’s Timothy] Grose reports that some Xinjiang Class members are put off jobs by being told that they cannot be provided with halal meals. [Source]

The author, Lu Jiamin, was jailed for more than a year for his role in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Worried his subsequent writings would be banned, he wrote the novel under a pen name, Jiang Rong. The French director, Jean-Jacques Annaud, had been banned from China for making “Seven Years in Tibet”, a film released in 1997 that depicts the Chinese army invading Tibet and portrays the Dalai Lama sympathetically. But China Film Group, a state-owned giant, and others made Mr Annaud a rare foreign director of a Chinese feature film, with a budget of more than $40m.

[…] In an open letter circulated in Chinese online (a liberal but generally fair translation, he says), Mr Annaud declared he had “never supported Tibet’s independence” and had no “personal relationship” with the Dalai Lama.

There were some domestic critics online who did not care for the novel or its author, and who would have liked to derail the film project. Mr Annaud’s self-criticism helped protect against that, and the Chinese system in turn protected him. The new natural order of things, perhaps. [Source]

Annaud recently told Reuters that censors had given him carte blanche on the project, but acknowledged that this freedom “may have been an exception.” Even without their guidance, the film reportedly plays down the novel’s political subtexts to focus on its environmental theme.

“I think this shows the Americans are learning gradually and successfully how to play the Chinese back in their own manner of doing politics,” said Robbie Barnett, an expert on modern Tibet at Columbia University.

In particular, Mr. Barnett said, Mr. Obama’s non-meeting with the Dalai Lama demonstrated a grasp of the symbolic politics favored by Beijing but usually dismissed out of hand by Western governments. By conceding on not actually having a discussion with the religious leader, the White House appears to be respecting Beijing’s demands, he explained.

“Meanwhile, you can’t get away from the television image of the president with his hands clapped together bowing his head toward the Dalai Lama,” he said. “That’s a very strong message. It doesn’t look like a climb-down.” [Source]

“The Dalai Lama has over a long period of time used the banner of religion to engage in separatist, anti-Chinese activities as a political exile,” Hong Lei, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said during a regular news conference on Friday. “We oppose any foreign country allowing the Dalai Lama to visit, and oppose any country using the issue of Tibet to interfere in China’s internal affairs.”

In a commentary Friday, the state-run news agency Xinhua was more colorful. “This action by the U.S. to ‘drive a nail’ into the hearts of the Chinese people is harmful to the political trust between the two countries, and it is harmful to the premise and foundation of both sides building a new relationship,” it said.

[…] Although China’s forceful and florid protests are largely aimed at showing its resolve to a domestic audience, Mr. Barnett said its public statements were unbecoming of a world power. “It makes them look tetchy and unreasonable,” he said, “and in the end, the Chinese allowed the Americans to walk them into a situation that doesn’t look good.” [Source]

The Dalai Lama is not a head of state and he formally gave up his political role in Tibet’s exile government three years ago. But his appearance at the National Prayer Breakfast, where Obama will deliver an address about religious freedom, has already drawn sharp objections from Chinese leaders who oppose meetings between the religious leader and politicians.

[…] The machinations surrounding the Dalai Lama’s visit illustrate his unique standing as a global icon. Perhaps no other person who is not a head of state forces the White House into such contortions — simultaneously embracing him as a symbol of democratic values and keeping him at a remove because of his status as a political lightning rod.

By comparison, Obama literally kissed Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s democracy icon, during a visit to that country in November.

“The president’s desire, and probably need, to meet with the Dalai Lama is a function of U.S. domestic politics and a desire in the White House to be seen standing up for human rights,” said Bonnie Glaser, an Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “But they do understand we have to be careful with our relations with China.” [Source]

No-one knows whether or not Beijing will or will not move towards serious talks with the Dalai Lama in the future, or if western support will make this outcome more likely or less.

Could this meeting have any repercussions for Tibetans?

There are some observers who feel that the involvement of the Western powers in the Tibetan issue exacerbates tensions in Tibet and leads to more repressive and defensive polices by China. Others argue that China will not make concessions to Tibetans without foreign pressure. But that pressure is seen as provocative by many people in China, probably the vast majority. So this argument is unresolved.

There is also a thesis put forward by some Western scholars, and by some Tibetans too, that symbolic gestures of foreign support are counter-productive or even damaging. News of the event this week will be relayed into Tibet by Tibetan-language and Chinese-language radio stations in the US and Europe, so people will know about it and many will quietly celebrate it.

But, according to this argument, this risks leading some Tibetans in Tibet to believe that Western support is significant and practical – although it is clear to outsiders that it is only moral or symbolic. […]

How is the meeting likely to affect Sino-US ties?

It will lead to some tensions, but these are likely to be very minor and short-lived – these two powers have far too much at stake to risk serious damage accruing from this issue. […] [Source]

[… W]hile there have been a number of violent terrorist attacks in Xinjiang within the last year, Reuters reports that “there is little indication that any such attacks have occurred in Tibet.” However, China’s draft anti-terrorism law features an extraordinarily broad definition of terrorism, one that includes not only violent attacks but also “thought [or] speech” that aims to “subvert state power” or “split the state.”

That new definition has implication for Tibet. China has repeatedly denounced the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader, as a “splittist,” arguing that his talk of a “middle way” and increased Tibetan autonomy is merely code for outright Tibetan independence. Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on officials within Tibet that “follow the 14th Dalai Lama to split the country, break ethnic unity, participate in illegal organizations and activities, and spread reactionary opinions.”

Beijing also accuses the Dalai Lama of encouraging violence (including self-immolations by Tibetan monks) even while publicly embracing a message of non-violence. Last summer, Chinese media directly accused the Dalai Lama of inciting “hatred, terror, and extremist action” through the Kalachakra ceremony. [Source]

[…] The closest Sangay said he came to meeting a head of state was an encounter around 2007 at Harvard with Ma Ying-jeou, who later became the president of Taiwan — an island claimed by China, that only 21 nations still recognize as an independent country. Sangay said he has not met any heads of state: “We don’t even try; it’s too sensitive for them.”

[…] Sangay says that his policy on dealing with Beijing is the same as that of the previous Tibetan governments-in-exile. Rather than seeking independence, or making do with the status quo, the Dalai Lama in 1974 conceived of a policy known as the Middle Way Approach. It calls for “genuine autonomy” for Tibetans living in China, and allows Beijing to maintain “the security and territorial integrity of the motherland.” Samphel of the Tibet Policy Institute, who thinks Sangay is “doing a wonderful job,” admits that there’s little the prime minister can do. “Whether China thinks it’s within its interests to engage with him or not, that’s for China to decide. But at the moment, it seems that they don’t want anything to do with him.” [Source]

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/02/decoding-dalai-lama-diplomacy-dance/feed/0Rights Groups Detail China’s Deepening Repressionhttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/01/human-rights-watch-freedom-house-reports-detail-deepening-repression-china/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/01/human-rights-watch-freedom-house-reports-detail-deepening-repression-china/#commentsFri, 30 Jan 2015 00:56:38 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=180932Human Rights Watch released its 2015 World Report on Thursday, covering more than 90 countries in 644 pages. The organization sharply criticized China for eroding rights on several fronts, but also faulted the international community for failing to confront it.

Under President Xi Jinping, the Chinese government and Communist Party have unleashed the harshest campaign of politically motivated investigations, detentions, and sentencing in the past decade, marking a sharp turn toward intolerance of criticism, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2015.

“Under President Xi, China is rapidly retreating from rights reforms and the Party’s promise to ‘govern the country according to law,’” said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch. “Repression of critics is the worst in a decade, and there appears to be no end in sight.”

[…] This year’s World Report also flagged weakening international concern about human rights abuses in China. Some, including United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, instead praised the government for “its contributions to the promotion of … human rights.” China continues to refuse meaningful engagement with UN human rights mechanisms and voted down resolutions spotlighting abuses in Belarus, Iran, North Korea, Sri Lanka, Syria, and Ukraine. China repeated its calls for “political solutions” in Syria, Sudan, and South Sudan in 2014, but took steps that prolonged human rights crises in all three.

“China under Xi Jinping is escalating hostility to human rights and democratic pressures, at home and abroad, yet the international community remains largely silent,” Richardson said. “Abetting the systematic suppression of basic freedoms is a short-sighted and dangerous policy, one that only encourages Beijing’s growing intransigence.” [Source]

The Chinese government’s approach to Xinjiang, the northwestern province that is home to the Muslim Uighur minority, is to respond to complaints about human rights abuses with more human rights abuses and restrictions. Beijing claims that its crackdown is necessary to fight separatism and terrorism, but its tactic is to impose some of the most draconian and discriminatory policies against Uighurs, including prohibitions on wearing beards and veils, restrictions on fasting, and overt discrimination with respect to religious education.

The escalating deadly attacks against civilians and security forces in Xinjiang are a grave concern for the government. But the haste with which the government attributes violence to “Uighur terrorists”—while rarely producing evidence and routinely denying suspects the right to a fair trial—creates a vicious cycle in which already-repressed Uighurs feel under constant siege from the state. From the little information made publicly available, it is impossible to assess with any confidence whether those convicted and often sentenced to death are responsible for violence and whether the government’s severe counterterrorism measures are aimed at the right people.

As illustrated by the extraordinarily harsh life sentence handed down in September to Ilham Tohti, a moderate Uighur economist, the state remains unwilling to distinguish between peaceful criticism and those who engage in violence. [The looming prosecution of rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang on charges including inciting ethnic hatred and separatism offers another example.] Viciously prosecuting peaceful criticism, leaving virtually no room for religious or cultural freedom, and expanding an economic strategy in which Uighurs cannot compete equally with Han Chinese migrants is a recipe for increased violence.

[…] In all of these cases, policymakers inevitably can cite seemingly good reasons for downplaying human rights. Human rights require restraint that can feel antithetical to a “do what it takes” attitude that often prevails in the face of serious security challenges. But the last year shows how short-sighted that reflex can be. Violations of human rights often sparked these security challenges, and their continued violation frequently aggravates them. [Source]

An aggressive anticorruption campaign reached the highest echelons of the party during the year, and party and government bodies pushed forward incremental reforms of the petitioning system, household registration (hukou) rules, and laws on domestic violence. In October, the CCP Central Committee convened for its fourth plenum, focusing on improvements to the legal system.

However, such initiatives were accompanied by hard-line policies on political freedoms and civil liberties and a rejection of judicial oversight of party actions. Harassment of previously tolerated civil society organizations, labor leaders, academics, and state-sanctioned churches intensified. Internet controls continued to tighten, and several activists who had been detained in 2013 were sentenced to prison on politically motivated charges. Crackdowns related to the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, the prodemocracy Umbrella Movement protests in Hong Kong, and an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Beijing resulted in hundreds of new detentions.

Harsh state repression of the Uighur population’s ethnic and religious identity, combined with long-standing socioeconomic grievances, have apparently fueled an escalating cycle of radicalization, with several deadly attacks attributed to Uighur extremists during 2014. The government responded with heavy-handed collective punishment and more intrusive restrictions on religious identity. Meanwhile, Uighur scholar Ilham Tohti was sentenced to life in prison in September for supposedly inciting separatism, signaling the authorities’ intolerance of even peaceful advocates of Uighur rights and interethnic dialogue. [Source]

China’s growing political influence over Hong Kong encountered dramatic public resistance in 2014. In August, the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) issued a decision that would allow a popular vote for chief executive in the territory for the first time in 2017, but would empower an effectively pro-Beijing committee to control nominations for the contest. Prodemocracy groups criticized the decision, arguing that it violated promises of eventual universal suffrage that China had made under Hong Kong’s Basic Law and in a corresponding 2007 NPC Standing Committee decision.

Long-standing disagreements between the authorities and a large section of the population over the degree of free choice in future elections came to a head in response to the ruling. Large student-led protests broke out in September, with demonstrators establishing encampments and barricades at several points in the city center. The occupations continued for more than two months, though the police periodically attempted to clear them, at times using tear gas and batons. The police were also accused of enabling violence by counterprotesters with alleged links to organized crime groups. The last encampments were removed by mid-December.

Meanwhile, the territory’s press freedom suffered a sharp decline. The number of physical attacks on journalists increased during the year, major businesses withdrew advertising from critical media outlets, and reporters acknowledged the growing practice of self-censorship. [Source]

The officials in the Tibet Autonomous Region, which includes the capital, Lhasa, provided intelligence to the “Dalai Lama clique” and took part in activities that “would harm national security,” according to an article by China News Service, an official agency, that was published by several major news outlets, including Global Times, a populist newspaper, and the website of People’s Daily, the main party newspaper. The report cited officials with the party Commission for Discipline Inspection of Tibet.

The report said there had been six cases of party members and civil servants violating party discipline and 45 officials who had abandoned their posts or neglected their duties. Those 45 officials were being “severely punished,” the report said, citing Wang Gang, a party discipline official.

It was unclear from the report to what degree the cases of these officials overlapped with the 15 cases involving separatist activities. […] [Source]

Today, in the post-Mao era, the language of state mouthpieces like the newspapers, television, radio and official texts (including history texts) is still locked in the Leninist era from 35 years ago – to read an official Tibetan newspaper day after day, with its wooden terminology and endless praise of the state, is a mind-numbing experience. And China’s education policies in Lhasa and the Tibet Autonomous Region are very damaging for Tibetan language: all middle schools there (unlike Qinghai) are required to use Chinese as the teaching medium. This is starting to happen in kindergartens now too. So a lot depends on whether the Qinghai or the Lhasa model of education is adopted in the future.

But, although there is much they are not allowed to write about, other areas of culture and language in Tibet that are less important to the state have flourished since the 1990s, making claims of cultural genocide seem overstated. The huge increase in education, publishing and distribution of commercial media has led to a surge in creative writing and publishing in Tibetan, particularly in poetry, short story writing, popular music, religious texts, and more recently in film, particularly in Amdo. But the larger problem is that Tibetans who are fluent in Tibetan find it hard to get good jobs, even in Qinghai, so in the longer term this is likely to act as a general economic disincentive for the future of Tibetan language, and the current renaissance faces serious risks and challenges unless progressive policies are introduced. [Source]

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2015/01/robert-barnett-tibetan-language-policy-practice/feed/0Police Fire on Tibetan Protestershttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/12/police-fire-tibetan-protesters-self-immolations/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/12/police-fire-tibetan-protesters-self-immolations/#commentsFri, 26 Dec 2014 19:06:01 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=180123Reuters cites a report from London-based rights group Free Tibet, saying that police opened fire on a group of protesters in Sichuan:

A monk was shot in the arm after police used teargas and opened fire during a clash with Tibetans outside a police station in the western province of Sichuan, which borders Tibet, British-based Free Tibet said in a statement.

The group did not say when the violence happened and police in the area could not be reached for comment.

Human rights activists say China tramples on religious freedom and culture in Tibet, which it has ruled strictly since People’s Liberation Army troops “peacefully liberated” the region in 1950.

China rejects such criticism, saying its rule ended serfdom in Tibet and brought development to a backward, poverty-stricken region. [Source]

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/12/police-fire-tibetan-protesters-self-immolations/feed/0Tibetan Woman Dies After Self-Immolation in Chinahttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/12/tibetan-woman-dies-self-immolation-china/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/12/tibetan-woman-dies-self-immolation-china/#commentsTue, 23 Dec 2014 18:42:25 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=180078At the New York Times, Andrew Jacobs reports that a 20-year-old Tibetan woman died Monday after self-immolating in protest of Chinese policies in Tibetan regions of China:

The woman, Tsepe Kyi, described as a 20-year-old nomad from Aba County in the Chinese province of Sichuan, died there, Free Tibet and Radio Free Asia reported. The authorities were said to have later detained her parents and a brother for questioning.

In Tibetan areas of China, family members with advance knowledge of a self-immolation can face jail time.

The latest self-immolation, the second this month, brought to 135 the number of Tibetans who have set themselves ablaze since 2009 in a campaign protesting what many Tibetans describe as intrusive government policies. [Source]

The man, Sangye Khar, 33, self-immolated in the mountain town of Sangchu, known as Xiahe in Chinese, home to the Labrang Monastery, one of the most important sites in Tibetan Buddhism and a major tourist attraction. The self-immolation, the third in a row to take place outside a police station, coincided with a major Tibetan religious festival. [Source]

The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 after Chinese troops crushed an attempted uprising in Tibet.

Beijing views the Nobel Peace Prize-winner as a “splittist”, though he now advocates a “middle way” with China, seeking autonomy but not independence for Tibet.

In a wide-ranging interview with the BBC’s Newsnight programme, during a visit to Rome for the 14th World Summit of Nobel Laureates, the 79-year-old spiritual leader conceded that he may not have a successor.

Whether another Dalai Lama came after him would depend on the circumstances after his death and was “up to the Tibetan people”, he said.

[…] The move was seen by many as a way the Dalai Lama could ensure the Tibetan community would have an elected leader in place outside the control of China.

China has said repeatedly that it will choose the next Dalai Lama.

“The Dalai Lama institution will cease one day. These man-made institutions will cease,” the Dalai Lama told the BBC. [Source]

The British government did not confront China over the situation in Hong Kong because it needs Chinese money, the Dalai Lama has said.

“My English friend said they say the British government’s pocket is more or less empty, so it is very important to them to have close links with China for money reasons. That is also realistic,” said the Dalai Lama, in an interview with Newsnight in Rome.

[…] “China, economically, very much wants to join the mainstream of the world economy. They are most welcome,” the Dalai Lama said.

[…] “At the same time the free world has a moral responsibility to bring China into the mainstream of democracy. China’s own people also want that … so therefore I think the whole world’s future has to be freedom and democracy. I think the free world has certain responsibilities to stand firm over democracy and the rule of law and the freedom of the press.” [Source]

In the interview aired on Wednesday, the exiled spiritual leader suggested hardliners in Beijing were holding President Xi Jinping back from granting genuine autonomy to the Himalayan region.

The Dalai Lama said he had been encouraged by Xi’s recent comments on the importance of Buddhism in Chinese culture. “This is something very unusual,” he said. “A communist, usually, we consider atheist.”

Asked if the remarks led him to believe Xi was ready to discuss calls for genuine autonomy, the spiritual leader said he thought there were “some indications”.

“But at the same time, among the establishment, there is a lot of hardliner thinking still there. So he himself sometimes finds it’s a difficult situation,” the Dalai Lama said. [Source]

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/12/dalai-lama-concedes-may-last/feed/0Pope Declines “Inconvenient” Dalai Lama Meetinghttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/12/pope-declines-inconvenient-dalai-lama-meeting/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2014/12/pope-declines-inconvenient-dalai-lama-meeting/#commentsThu, 11 Dec 2014 23:07:20 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=179868The Telegraph’s Nick Squires reports that Pope Francis has declined to meet with the Dalai Lama and other Nobel Laureates in Rome this weekend, apparently to avoid angering Beijing. According to the Dalai Lama himself, the Vatican decided against the meeting “because it could cause inconveniences.”

The decision reflects an acute diplomatic dilemma for the Pope, at a time when the Vatican is attempting to improve its relations with Beijing and wants to avoid upsetting the Chinese authorities for fear of provoking trouble for the country’s Catholic community.

The snub is hardly in keeping with the Argentinean pontiff’s enthusiasm for dialogue with other religions, an agenda he has pursued in recent months on trips to Turkey, Albania and the Holy Land.

[…] The event was originally due to be held in South Africa but had to be moved after the Pretoria government refused to issue the Tibetan spiritual leader a visa, fearing repercussions from Beijing. [Source]

“Attachment can lead you to all sort of trouble and we Buddhists believe that non-attachment alone can lead you to happiness,” 30-year-old monk Jamyang Palden told The Associated Press at a cafe in the Indian hill town of Dharamsala, before giving the philosophy its Information Age twist: “We have to learn to be suspicious of email attachments.”

The Internet safety slogan, one of several messages championed by digital security group Tibet Action Institute, is an example of how human rights defenders are seeking creative ways to protect activists from electronic espionage.

There’s little doubt that groups like Tibet Action need protection. A major study published Tuesday by Internet watchdog Citizen Lab shows that it and other civil society organizations have been penetrated by cyberspies, many of them linked to China. And the report says that those behind the compromises are the same hackers responsible for high-profile attacks on major multinationals and Western governments.

“They’re using the same weaponry, the same arsenal — indiscriminately,” said Citizen Lab director Ronald Deibert. […] [Source]

In a front-page article in the Tibet Daily, Tibet’s party chief Chen Quanguo said China would stamp out any separatist inclinations.

“As for cadres who harbor fantasies about the 14th Dalai Group, follow the Dalai Group, participate in supporting separatist infiltration sabotage activities, (they will be) strictly and severely punished according to the law and party disciplinary measures,” Chen was quoted as saying.

Chen’s denunciation of the Dalai Lama signals a hardening stance against the Nobel Peace Prize winner whom they label a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” who seeks to use violent methods to establish an independent Tibet. [Source]